Eyesore buildings demolished on city-owned Milpitas property

by Ian Bauer, Milpitas Post

Posted:
05/23/2014 11:32:37 AM PDT

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City of Milpitas paid home builder D.R. Horton to demolish three former industrial use buildings on the 1700 block of McCandless Drive. The action, the city says, was meant to rid the area of the structures that had fallen into disrepair and had become a magnet for criminal activity and homeless encampments. The area is planned to be a city-owned 11-acre park.

Three former industrial use buildings sitting on city-owned property that had become a magnet for metal theft, illegal dumping, graffiti and homeless encampments have been demolished.

Milpitas City Council voted 4-0 May 6 to approve paying developer D.R. Horton Bay Inc. $707,741.29 for demolition of those buildings at 1650 to 1690 and 1740 to 1830 McCandless Drive.

In April 2013, according to city reports, the council and Milpitas Housing Authority adopted a joint resolution approving a loan from the Milpitas Housing Authority to City of Milpitas for the demolition of those three city buildings to address blighted conditions at the property. The amount of the loan was $621,500.

Council also approved a seven-month demolition agreement with D.R. Horton in the amount of $593,500 requiring all demolition to be completed on or before Oct. 31, 2013. However, the buildings weren't demolished until March 2014.

Felix Reliford, the city's principal housing planner, said Pacific Gas & Electric Co. required approximately four months for the city and D.R. Horton to obtain required inspections and permits to authorize the removal of utilities from the site. Utilities were required for removal prior to demolition of the buildings for health and safety reasons, he said.

Reliford said PG&E's requirements created holdups for the project that should have been completed last year.

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"We didn't think that PG&E would take that long, we thought it would take a month or two," Reliford said, adding the process took closer to five months.

Because of the amount of time required to obtain inspections and permits required by other agencies, the original agreement expired, according to Reliford. He added city staffers prepared a new agreement incorporating the costs for additional work required on the site for council approval.

Reliford said D.R. Horton was chosen to demolish the site partly because it was less costly to the city as the builder was in the midst of constructing its Harmony project -- a 276-unit single-family home and condominium project -- directly across the street, on the west side of McCandless Drive. Additional work completed at the site included erosion control, installation of fencing, hydro-seeding to stabilize and cover the ground, repair of a 12-inch water line; and sidewalk installation, among other things.

At some point in the future, Reliford noted the the now fenced off, graded site will be converted into a nearly 11-acre public park.

Last year, the same site on McCandless Drive had been proposed as a possible joint-use school and park. But in November, the State of California decided that no joint-use agreement toward a school and park on the McCandless Drive parcel in Milpitas could advance. As a result, Milpitas Unified School District formally halted plans to build a consolidated kindergarten through eighth-grade school at the site despite concerns about overcrowded schools in the future in southern Milpitas.